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For decades, Luigi Cavalli-Sforza has been a man obsessed. His mission: to convince sceptical social scientists that the migrations of ancient peoples can be recreated by mapping the genetic diversity of present-day humans. Here he recounts his successes in a popular book, The Great Human Diasporas (Addison-Wesley, $27.50, ISBN 0 201 40755 8), jointly written with son Francisco, who makes educational films. It mixes research findings in linguistics, anthropology, archaeology and population genetics with personal stories, homilies and often rather leaden writing, to wit: “It is evident that our intellectual, moral and social upbringing is deficient and must be improved.” Perhaps the style suffers in translation: the book first appeared in Italian, two years ago.